This was a ho-hum account of how Dell, the company and the individual, got to where they are today, or rather where they were in 1999 when the book was written.
The most exciting parts were in the first few chapters when Michael Dell discusses his entrepreneurial experiences as a child, when he got into computers, and when he started working on them. This continued through college where he was building and repairing computers in his dorm room and ultimately need a warehouse for space - all this behind his parent's backs. To their chagrin, he eventually dropped out of college.
From there the book becomes a very repetitive telling of a story I assume many of us are familiar with. Some of the insight into how he gained efficiencies, reduced lead times, reduced inventories were interesting. I also found Dell's philosophies on hiring practices worth noting.
The problem is that Dell (the writer) paints a very clear picture early on of what is important for Dell (the companY) and then just keeps providing examples going forward. We did this and it cut our inventory down to 6 days. We did that and it cut our inventory down to 5 days. And then we did this and it cut our inventory down to 4 days. Sure, some of the this's and that's were neat...but I was feeling "enough already" about half-way through the book.
To Dell's defense the book may have been more interesting in 1999. Chapters explaining how the Internet will change his business and business in general were particularly dated and a little boring.
If you're a 35 to 45 year-old geek that remembers the first Atari's, Commodore's, and IBM PCs you can read the first few chapters at the Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble so you can ponder, "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" Besides that, unless perhaps you're looking to start some sort of direct-order, manufacturing business, I don't think this is a must-read.
I also found Dell's philosophies on hiring practices worth noting. 
